Frozen confections which consist of ice cream, frozen yoghurt, or the like coated with chocolate, frozen fruit juice, or other coatings are popular products. These products are often supported on a stick so that they can be conveniently consumed without being held directly. Chocolate-coated stick products are one example of this type of product that have been known for many years.
Frozen confection products, including those on sticks are often produced by an “extrude and cut” process. This provides an uncoated frozen confection, which may at this stage already include a stick inserted in the confection.
More recently it has been proposed to manufacture frozen aerated products with cold roller apparatus the process comprising providing two rollers with open cavities on their surfaces, filling two cavities, one on each roller, with a frozen aerated material, wherein at least one of the cavities is filled with a frozen aerated product which is then allowed to expand outside its cavity, the two cavities then being moved opposite one another and the frozen aerated product in each cavity is pressed against the frozen aerated product in the other cavity. The product is thus formed from two halves and is self-releasing from the rollers.
Once manufactured, the uncoated frozen aerated confection can then be coated by dipping into a bath of liquid coating to form the coating or may also be sprayed or enrobed with liquid coating. Once coated, the frozen products are typically blast frozen and moved from the production area to the storage areas in the factory prior to distribution.
In some regions of the world such confections are manufactured at one altitude and then shipped and sold at another altitude. Such confections can also be manufactured at one altitude and experience different altitudes in the distribution chain for example when items are shipped via air freight or by road over mountain regions. Sometimes the difference in altitude can be significant. It has been observed that when such frozen aerated confections are shipped to a significantly higher altitude the coating applied can break and fall away from the surface of the frozen confection. Additionally, when such frozen confections are shipped to a significantly lower altitude, the coating applied is seemingly more easily damaged by mechanical shocks.
It would therefore be desirable to prevent these altitude-related problems from arising.